


Rise from the ashes

by AnimaTheAwesome1



Series: A collection of my Self-Inserts [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Art on my Deviantart profile going by the same name, Aura Guardian Ash Ketchum, BAMF Delia Ketchum, BAMF Satoshi | Ash Ketchum, Bookworm Ash Ketchum, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Depressed Ash Ketchum, Descendant of Sir Aaron Ash Ketchum, F/M, Insecure Ash Ketchum, Nice Gary, OC as Ash, Overprotective Pokemon, Pokemon researcher Ash Ketchum, Protective Ash Ketchum, Protective Delia Ketchum, Protective Pokemon, Self-Insert, Slightly AU pokemon world, Socially awkward Ash Ketchum, bamf ash ketchum, female ash ketchum, female!Ash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-08 00:30:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17376098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimaTheAwesome1/pseuds/AnimaTheAwesome1
Summary: Ashlyn Ketchum isn't normal. While this could be because she can use Aura and is the daughter of the Kanto champion, it's probably more likely because she remembers a past. A past where Pokemon was just a fictional fandom and she was a different person. But somehow she ended up being reborn/reincarnated as a genderbent, female, Ash Ketchum. She didn't even watch the Pokemon anime in her past life, why the hell was she the protagonist? SI-OC. Self-Insert.





	1. The beginning of a story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new life is born.

Anima: Warning: While I will be mostly sticking to the original story, I have not seen the Pokemon anime so there will probably be a lot of changes in the Rfta universe and so it will be an alternate universe/au, besides a story just like the original is boring. Also, I will be writing a brief note at the beginning and/or end of each chapter that will help explain stuff.  
So Disclaimer, I do not own the Pokémon franchise but I do own the new and improved, totally different Ash in this fanfiction.  
Anyways, on to the story.  
Pokemon communicating in English without actually speaking (not Meowth): *…*  
Pokemon speaking: /…/  
Normal human speaking (Meowth): “…”  
A person or Pokemon thinking: ‘…’

-)Space(-

Delia Ketchum was tired. Tired, but so, so happy. It had been a long labor. It hadn’t helped that her husband was over on the other side of Kanto when her water broke. Luckily her Pokemon were there and ready to help her out, Alakazam used his psychic abilities to move Delia safely out of the house, Pidgeot quickly took her to the hospital and Venusaur used her vines to secure her safely to Pidgeot’s back. Butterfree, Gyarados, and Absol might not have been able to help much, but their concern for her was touching. She really loved her Pokemon.

Of course, her thoughts on her Pokemon were stopped when the contractions hit her and oh sweet Arceus it hurt. But all of the pain and tears throughout the long process of bringing her child into the world were instantly forgotten when she saw her child, for the first time.

“Congratulations” The nurse smiled at her as she gently passed the small, squirming and wailing bundle to Delia. “It’s a beautiful baby girl.”

When she was handed that precious bundle, her heart swelled with love for the small being in front of her. Her sweet little Ashlyn. She was beautiful. As if knowing Delia’s thoughts, the baby quickly calmed down and stopped her crying. 

Delia’s eyes snapped to the entrance of the hospital room as the sounds of crashes, yelling and different Pokemon cries happened before the door was flung open by a young man with short, spiky black hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a red jacket over a white t-shirt with a Pokeball on the front and a pair of blue denim jeans, along with blue trainers and a red and white baseball cap.

Upon the man’s entrance into the room, he yelled “Delia!” at the top of his lungs but was instantly quietened down by the fiery glares aimed at him from everyone in the room. Everyone except Delia, of course. While the man cowered under the righteous reprimanding from the various doctors and nurses, Delia tried to stifle her giggles with her right hand, while her left arm was curled around the bundle.

Hearing the giggles the man turned to the bed where Delia lay and lost his breath upon his eyes locking upon the precious treasure she held. “Delia” he breathed out quietly as the woman beamed at her husband and waved her free hand at him to move closer to her.

Quietly, slowly, he inched his way to her and when he was hesitating not far from the bed, Delia rolled her eyes, reached her right arm over to her left side and grabbed onto her husband’s jacket and gave it a sharp yank. Staggering from the abrupt pull, the man stumbled to a stop right next to the left of the bed.

Delia let out a light laugh as her husband pouted at her. “Red, this is your daughter Ashlyn” she whispered as she lifted up their baby and placed her gently in his, now trembling arms.

Lifting the little girl closer to his face, tears came to Red’s eyes as he saw the thin mop of black hair on the baby’s head and the scrunched up face of his little girl. His heart melted as the tiny human being let out a small whine. Kneeling down to be on a closer level to his wife, his grin grew as his two precious, oh so precious, girls were reunited, as Ashlyn was safely put back into her mother’s arms. Then Red shot an inquisitive look at Delia. “Ashlyn?” he asked, confused.

Delia smiled tiredly at him. “Ashlyn Elizabeth Ketchum, to be precise. You did say if we had a boy you wanted to name him Ash and you know how I wanted to name a girl Elizabeth. Well, I figured that a mix of our name choices would fit this” she lifted Ashlyn up “little one more. Besides, we can use the name Ash as a nickname for her”

“Ashlyn.” Red mused before grinning madly and leaning over to start peppering Delia’s face with kisses. “I love it!” He announced before jumping back a bit in surprise as Ashlyn let out a wail of protest of being squashed by her daddy leaning over her.

Red gave Delia a sheepish look as she aimed a stern stare at him. Both of them let out noises of surprise when one of Red’s Pokeballs opened and let out a beam of white light that materialized into his Lucario, who eagerly looked around.

*Where’s the baby?* Lucario questioned excitedly. He and the rest of Red’s Pokemon had been waiting for 9. MONTHS. Waiting for their trainer’s child to be born. And when a call came for Red while he and his Pokemon Lucario, Infernape, Floatzel, Lopunny, Toxicroak, and Roserade were having a mock battle with one of his fellow champions after the meeting, they were ecstatic to find out from the caller, Professor Oak, that the baby was coming. Red’s pokemon were not so ecstatic to find out that the baby was coming right that moment so they would miss the birth as they were on the other side of Kanto away from Delia and they would need to stay in their Pokeballs while Red rushed as fast as he could to get to Delia’s side.

Red groaned at the sight of the eager Lucario and facepalmed at his question. Sometimes, at inappropriate moments like this, he wished that Lucario had never learned to communicate with his aura. It made conversations easier sure, but on the other hand, his Lucario was an excitable chatterbox who often spoke without thinking.

Delia giggled at Red’s exasperation and smiled at Lucario when he bounded closer to Delia to get a better look at what was inside the blankets she was holding. “Hello Lucario” She greeted.

*Hi Delia* Lucario greeted back. *Is this the baby?* He gestured to the blankets.

She smiled and nodded. “Would you like to hold her?” She asked. Lucario beamed while Red looked like he was going to have a panic attack.

“Delia.” Red protested, panicked, as his wife shifted her hold on Ashlyn so she could pass her over to Lucario. “Lucario has paws, he might not be able to hold her properly. She could slip from them and fall. She could get hurt. Not to mention his spikes. Lucario might accidentally scratch her.” Delia sighed in exasperation as Red continued to ramble away on what might happen if Lucario held their daughter. It looked like Red was going to be an overprotective father.

*I’m not going to drop her.* Lucario protested heatedly. *You know I have a good grip. And I’m always careful with my spikes. She won’t get hurt. Besides, she’s bound to be bored without her uncle Lucario* He crossed his arms angrily and glared at Red as the man floundered.

Moving over to Delia, Lucario gently lifted the baby into his arms as the mother passed her over, and carefully held her away from his chest spike as he cooed over her and started talking… well, aura speaking, to tell her how cute she was and how he couldn’t wait for her to get older so they could play.

Delia laughed as Red panicked over Lucario holding Ashlyn and started hovering around the two to make sure that his Pokemon wouldn’t accidentally hurt his daughter. *Welcome to the world Ashlyn Ketchum.* Lucario yelled as he held her out at arm's length and grinned at her. Then Red and he started to panic as Ashlyn broke into loud, eardrum murdering wails, while Delia sighed tiredly from her place on the bed.

-)Space(-

Anima: So, I hope you guys enjoyed the beginning of this story. This is what I imagine would happen if I was born into an AU Pokemon fandom crossover, with oc’s and new developments galore. 

I’ve read stories where a person becomes Ash, but they never go into depth on Ash’s childhood. They all start at his Pokemon Journey and I was wondering what would happen if there was a fanfiction that went into depth on how Ash, or Ashlyn in this case, grew up.

Anyways, in future chapters, I will include some timelines and extra information so that you lovely young readers will hopefully be able to understand the story better.

Also, as some of you may have noticed, Delia now has Pokemon. I will be explaining that later so sit tight for the reveal of how that happened.

Lastly, while I do not appreciate mean and derogative comments about my writing, I would like it if people could comment on what I could do to improve my story by telling me what you think could have been better and why.

Also, this is MY story, so I decide the plot and how the story goes. I will not have random people telling me I should do this or that. I would be happy to listen to your ideas, but if I don’t incorporate them into my story, do not get angry at me. They’re probably very good ideas, they just don’t fit in with my story.

Anyways, I’ll talk to you guys later, in the next chapter.


	2. Spread your wings and soar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash's thoughts on her new life and what she decides to do.

Anima: Hi guys and welcome to the 2nd chapter of ‘Rise from the ashes’. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and like my story so far. Before we start the story I have a few messages for you all.

First, I have favorites already??? Wow, I literally just put it up and within a few hours, people have already read and liked it. Thank you guys so much for that. I honestly didn’t think that many people would like this story. So thank you. Here’s a much longer chapter to celebrate.

Second, thank you to the people that reviewed. Your comments are both very helpful, considerate and motivating. Hope you like the rest of the story. 

Thirdly, to Shadowjab17 (on Fanfiction.net), I am not dumping aura into Ashlyn’s skillset because Red has a Lucario. The original Ash was shown to have the ability to use aura in the 8th Pokemon movie, which I actually decided to watch a long time ago because Lucario is one of my favorite Pokemon. Ash already had aura, so I just decided to add a backstory for that, which will be revealed later. 

And about Red, Ash doesn’t know he’s the champion. She knows of Red, but only knows that he has a Charizard and he wears a red and white t-shirt (saw clip of Red in Alola). Besides, not only does this Red look different but he has very different Pokemon. And come on, how big of a coincidence would it be if the future champion was the daughter of the current one? Not to mention, the Red she thinks she knows is serious and silent, while her new dad is a total goofball, kinda like the original Ash. She doesn’t believe that her dad in this world would be that important as the father of the original Ash was a failure that abandoned his family. She hasn’t put the pieces together yet, and it will be a while before she does. 

Also, I have seen a few random episodes from the anime, but I can’t remember them that well. The rest of the info I have on Pokemon is from the manga, games, and movies. I also live with a little brother that does watch the anime, and he often tells me about some stuff. I also watch youtube and, as long as the videos are good, I have watched Pokemon theories and while I don’t know what the characters are saying, I have seen Pokemon music videos, in fact, I compiled a playlist of Pokemon music I thought was cool on Youtube.  
Besides, the original Ash already had a lot of luck, I mean, he got almost all of the starters from every region because of luck and is apparently? Some chosen one. I think. Read that somewhere but can’t remember where. Lastly, I haven’t actually written Ash’s reaction… you’re getting that this chapter. (smiles)

Fourthly and finally, I am currently doing my A-levels, so in the future, it may take a while for me to post new chapters for the story, but I will try my best.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Pokemon franchise, but I do own the new and improved Ash Ketchum that stars in this story.  
So anyway, on to the story.

Pokemon communicating in English without actually speaking (not Meowth): *…*  
(I noticed that the previous signs I wrote didn’t show up, so here are some new ones for) Pokemon speaking: /…/  
Normal human speaking (Meowth): “…”  
A person or Pokemon thinking: ‘…’

-)Space(-

Ash was confused. She was also terrified and attempting to deny everything that had happened. The keyword here is Attempting. Attempting to deny was, however, thoroughly not possible because of the impossibility right in front of her that didn’t allow her to deny the situation she was in. 

She didn’t know how she ended up in this position. She was a baby. A BABY!!! HOW??? She remembered going to school, coming home, rinse, repeat, her usual routine… but trying to remember after that was like getting water from a stone. IMPOSSIBLE. She didn’t-couldn’t remember how she ended up like this. Her memories before her ending up in this place were as blank as a white sheet of paper. 

Did she die? If she did, then how? Oh god, what about her family? Were they alright? What happened to them? She… she didn’t know. It was so confusing. Though, while she was upset at being a baby, that actually wasn’t the biggest reason for her panic, we’ll get to that later.

Anyways, while she didn’t remember how, she remembered ending up in some warm and dark place. She tried to move and realized that she couldn’t. She was trapped. She didn’t know where she was. She was submerged, she had to get out, she had to-… wait… what was that?

She had paused in her attempted breakout from her prison, where she basically just kept kicking the walls, to hear muffled yelling. Then she felt a certain place on her prison warm up. In response, she angrily kicked against the spot. More yelling. If she listened very closely and strained her ears she could make out some of the words. 

“Oh, … , they kick hard. Are you … need to see a doctor? THE HOSPITAL?”

“Calm down Red. … fine. I’ve felt them … longer than you’ve felt them. … you’ve felt the baby kick, do … baby kick?”

“NAPE”  
“CAR”  
“SAUR”  
“FREE”  
“PUNNY”  
“FLOAT”  
“ZAM”  
“PIDGE”  
“SOL”  
“DOS”  
“CROAK”  
“ROSE”

So much NOISE! The yells, growling, and roars, even muffled, hurt her ears. Then she could feel warmth and pressure surrounding her and coming from the walls. Scared, she kept kicking. The noises changed, but she didn’t care. She just wanted them to go away. If whoever put her here, wherever here is, is going to keep her prisoner, the least they can do is buzz off and leave her alone. She decided to shut out the noise and ignore everything. Just stay still and sleep. It worked… for a while.

The next thing she knew, was the water around her draining and her, then being squished and squeezed. Oh god, it wasn’t painful per say, but it was weird and disorienting. What the hell was going on? All of a sudden, bright white light shone from everywhere and, too used to being in the dark, she shut her eyes and tried to adjust to the sudden brightness and well as the piercing cold that made her wail in shock… wait… wail? 

Suddenly, she was grabbed by GIANT hands. Someone then fucking slapped her ass. The shock of the action, the situation she was in, the fact that the world was blurry, all of these caused her to start screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. 

She tried to get away from whoever the hell was holding her but the giants had wrapped her tightly in blankets; there was nothing she could do.

She then heard the person holding her say “Congratulations. It’s a beautiful baby girl.”, while they moved her into someone else’s hold. The shock made her quiet down. Baby girl? They… couldn’t be talking about her, could they? I mean, it would explain why the people holding her were so large compared to her…no, it was impossible. She couldn’t be a ba-

BAM

She let out a small and startled cry at the sound of a door slamming as someone yelled “Delia!”. The arms holding her shifted as she could hear the person that yelled, repeat the name he previously said, only this time he was much, much, quieter.

After a short while, the girl could feel movement over her head, as the person holding her shifted their position and she could then hear someone near the bed stumble. Probably the guy that yelled. She then heard the person holding her laugh, a woman, before saying to the man that rudely barged in the room and stumbled “Red, this is your daughter Ashlyn”. Her heart practically stops. Daughter?

She could feel herself being handed over to the man and her face scrunched up as she thought, long and hard, on her situation. No denying it (despite how much she wanted to). She had just been born (ew) which meant that somehow she must’ve died in her previous life. Maybe the memory block was due to the trauma that could occur from dying. She didn’t know, this was her first time being fucking REBORN. 

She was now a baby and the man holding her must be her new father. Which meant that the woman he was passing her back to was her new mother. Alright, fine, the girl accepted, she had been reborn and was now the daughter of two people named Delia and Red. She could handle this… but why were those names so familiar?

Her father asked her mother about her new name. Ashlyn huh? Not a bad name. In fact, she liked it. Though as soon as she could talk she would definitely ask her parents if she could shorten her new name to just Ash. Her mum decided to elaborate on her choice of name. “Ashlyn Elizabeth Ketchum, to be precise. You did say if we had a boy you wanted to name him Ash and you know how I wanted to name a girl Elizabeth. Well, I figured that a mix of our name choices would fit this” Ash felt her self being lifted “little one more. Besides, we can use the name Ash as a nickname for her” Hey, what do you know? Mum had the same idea as her. Thanks, mum. Great minds think alike. But Ketchum? That’s a bit of an odd last name. Wasn’t that the name of the guy from Pokemon? Were her new parents Pokemon fans or something?

She heard her dad muse over her name and then felt weight press down on her as he exclaimed that he loved it. Ash let out a wail of protest over being squished. Honestly, her dad seemed like a nice guy, but it looked like he could use a bit more common sense. But, Ash was curious. What did her new family look like? She started to try and open her eyes but quickly closed them when an extra bright light shone out. 

Ash heard a loud and new voice question *Where’s the baby?*.

“Hello Lucario.” Her mother said and Ash’s thought process stopped. Then everything sped up. She didn’t pay any more attention to what the adults were talking about. Red, Delia Ketchum, Lucario, Ash Ketchum. Those names were from Pokemon. She couldn’t be in Pokemon. That wasn’t possible. This was real life. Not a crazy fanfiction story. She just couldn’t be. But… she had to make sure. 

As she felt herself being lifted out of her mother’s arms, she concentrated on opening her eyes. As the person holding her began telling her how cute she was and how they couldn’t wait for her to get older, she concentrated on letting her eyes adjust to the light so she could see. 

And when the colorful blobs became clear, Ash practically felt her heart stop. Not only did the world look animated, despite the normal setting of a hospital room, but the one holding and grinning at her was a real life, bonafide Lucario. 

As her mother laughed, her father panicked, and Lucario yelled, Ash realized who exactly she was. Ashlyn Ketchum. She had been reborn as a genderbent version of the fucking Pokemon anime protagonist. She might not have seen much of the anime before being reborn but she read stories and watched Game Theory on Youtube. She knew the basics. Life endangerment due to multiple world-threatening dangers that Ash had to stop and multiple run-ins with various criminal organizations. Upon that dreaded realization, Ash did the only thing she could do at that moment. She took a deep breath in and began bawling at the top of her lungs. 

-)Space(-

It had been about a week since coming back from the hospital, and Ash was still panicking over being reborn into Pokemon. God, was she being punished for something? She was trapped as a baby, in a new world, where the equivalent of animals had powers and there were around a dozen different criminal organizations. While she didn’t cry much anymore due to it being tiring and leaving her throat sore and eyes hurting, (not counting when she was hungry or needed to be changed) she internally freaked out over the future, her future.

She was the main character. THE main character. Sure, it could be worse, I mean, she could’ve been reborn as a female Monkey D. Luffy, Uzumaki Naruto or Eren frickin Jaegar. Compared to the problems that those characters went through on a daily basis starting from the day they were born, her new role would be a walk in the park. Still didn’t mean she wasn’t concerned over what was going to happen in the future though. 

She knew next to nothing about the anime. She only knew the first part of Ash’s journey up to the big ship, St. Anne or something, and a few minor details of some of the Pokemon movies. The only thing she was absolutely certain about was the movies ‘Lucario and the mystery of Mew’ and the movie with the Latios and Latias brother and sister. She definitely was going to save Lucario and Latios though, she cried so much when they died. That’s still over 11 years away though so plenty of time to plan. Mwahahahaha. Cough. Sorry, mad genius moment. 

Wait, back up. Shit, what the hell was she thinking? She wasn’t Ash. The original anyway. She had issues, self-confidence problems and couldn’t talk to other people to save her life. How the hell was she supposed to be the loud, social butterfly that was Ash? Not to mention, she didn't have to go on a journey… though it would be pretty cool to-Gah, no, stop. Various world-threatening dangers were out there, they only got solved after a crap ton of damage and when… Ash… did something… Fuck, she was going to have to go so people wouldn’t die, wasn’t she? If Ash hadn’t been there things would have ended badly. She had to go so people wouldn’t get hurt. She couldn’t just sit back and let people die if she could change it… didn’t mean she had to like it though. 

“Hello there princess.” Ash perked up and looked at the entrance of the nursery that her new dad had just walked through, and wasn’t that a shock. She thought that Ash’s dad left on a journey to be a failure of a Pokemon trainer. That’s what Matpat said on Game Theory anyways. Maybe it just hadn’t happened yet? But then how the fuck did he have a Lucario with him In the hospital? Not to mention, his name was Red. Wasn’t that the name of the champion? It said so on the Pokemon timeline video she watched. Why did her new dad have the name of a champion? There’s no way that Ash’s dad was a champion, that would be way too convenient. Sigh, so many questions and not enough answers. It would be a godsend when she would actually be able to talk.

Red strode over to where she lay in her crib, leaned down, heaved Ash up and swung her onto his hip. “You’re going to meet the rest of the family today.” He grinned and as they walked out of the nursery, through the hall, down the steps, through another hall (Jesus, this house was big. She thought that Ash’s family lived in a small house.) and to a door, Ash assumed, led to the back of the house as she wondered what her father was talking about. 

Ash wasn’t left wondering for long. As the two exited the house, Ash briefly admired the sunshine and the lovely scenery (trees, grass, flowers, that sort of thing) before freezing, as she stared numbly at the sight in front of her. If it weren’t for the fact that her dad was grinning without a care and that she was held securely in his arms, Ash probably would have pissed herself from the sheer terror that she felt. 

Sure, the Lucario, Infernape, Floatzel, Shiny Lopunny (How the heck did her parents have a shiny? And weren’t these Pokemon from Sinnoh?), Toxicroak, Roserade, Butterfree even Absol, she was fine with. The giant Venusaur, Pidgeot, and Alakazam she was less so, but still okay with. The GIANT FUCKING GYARADOS BIGGER THAN THE SECOND STORY HOUSE THEY LIVED IN WAS NOT SOMETHING SHE WAS ALRIGHT WITH!!! WHAT THE FUCK DAD??? JESUS THAT THING COULD EAT THEM BOTH IN ONE BITE!!! AAAAARGHHH!!!

While Ash secretly hyperventilated inside of her mind, (because a baby actually hyperventilating is weird and she doesn’t want to come off as a weird baby to her new family) Red, nice but a complete idiot when it comes to childcare, mistook her silent and blank stare, as well as tight grip on his shirt, for excitement and so, moved closer to all of the Pokemon that, while cool looking, could be very dangerous and should not be meeting a one week old baby. Jesus Red, what is wrong with you?

Ahem, anyways, moving on. As Red walked over to the Pocket monsters, that do not actually fit in anyone’s pocket, he kept a tight but gentle grip on the silent baby girl that was Ash. “Hey, guys.” Red greeted the Pokemon as he came to a stop in front of them. The Pokemon all yelled out in greeting, and unnoticed, Ash flinched at the noise.

“Ashlyn” Red stated gently to his daughter as he shifted her to see the Pokemon better “These are mine and your mother’s Pokemon.” Ash snapped out of her panic at hearing some of the Pokemon were Delia’s. How? Ash thought Delia’s only Pokemon was a Mr. Mime. How could her mum have so many Pokemon, how did she catch them, and which Pokemon were actually hers???

Red continued. “Ashlyn, this is my team. Lucario” Red pointed to said Pokemon, who gave an energetic wave in response. “Infernape” Who nodded at the pair when they were called. “Floatzel” Who crossed his arms and grinned toothily at them. “Lopunny” Who jumped and waved. “Toxicroak” Who gave a lazy salute. “And Roserade.” Who did a very elegant curtsy? Ash peeked out at the Pokemon but kept a tight grip on her father’s shirt, her real attention was on the remaining Pokemon who were somehow her mother’s.

“And this” Red gestured to the remaining Pokemon. “is your mother’s team. Venusaur” Who waved a vine. “Pidgeot” Who raised a wing. “Butterfree” Who performed a mid-air twirl. “Alakazam” Who nodded at the father and daughter duo. “Absol” Who bowed to the two. “And last but not least” Red grinned widely “I present to you, GYARADOS” Who let out a giant and earthshaking roar before dipping down to bring his face closer to his trainer’s mate and their child. Of course, Ash, who was terrified of Gyarados before when he was a safe distance away, was left shaking in fear after his roar. But when he brought his face down to inspect them. Ash. Completely. Lost it. 

She let out an absolutely terrified wail, then burst into tears, that made her face start to turn red and splotchy. Meanwhile, a panicked Red, who held Ash out at arm's length, frantically looked around to somehow get an idea of how to calm her down, and all of the Pokemon started moving towards the two trying to help. However, this just caused Ash to howl even louder. 

Ash was terrified. Not only was Ash a baby, which slightly affected how she reacted, but the terror she felt at the sight of Gyarados looming over her caused her to panic and lose all rationality. Besides, the father of original Ash abandoned him and Delia. Who’s to say this version of Ash’s dad wouldn’t feed her to the Gyarados. He abandoned his wife and child, why wouldn’t he get rid of an annoying brat that shouldn’t have even been born. God she was going to die.

After a while of hearing her constant crying, Ash started to calm down with the realization that she was still alive, though she was left hiccuping. She then realized that the person holding her wasn’t her father, but instead, her mother. Her mother, who, as she held Ash securely in one arm, leveled a frying pan at the cowering Pokemon in front of her. As well as them was the irresponsible husband that seemed to be nursing a bump on his head. Ash startled when she noticed that her mother had apparently been talking for a while.

“-should be ashamed Red. Ashlyn is just a baby. As excited as we all were for Ash to meet our Pokemon, you should have waited. Honestly, she must’ve been terrified out of her wits-“ Ash stared, occasionally hiccuping, as she watched her mother chew out her own husband before turning to the Pokemon.

“And you all.” The twelve shrank under her stern glare. “I know you were excited to meet Ash, but you shouldn’t have crowded her and you definitely shouldn’t have been so loud-“ Ash gazed at Delia, in awe and slightly terrified because holy shit, Delia was a total mama Ursaring. The Delia from the original wasn’t like this at all. At least, Ash thought she wasn’t.

The sight of Delia, reaming out the thirteen different beings of various sizes before her, that could easily overpower and hurt the enraged woman, started to become less odd and more funny for Ash. After all, it wasn’t every day that you saw an angry woman wielding a frying pan against a bunch of scared Pokemon and a tearfully apologizing man. 

Ash brought her hands to her mouth to try and stifle the giggles that were beginning to pour out. But alas, the laughs leaked through the gaps, and the fourteen sentient beings there, not including little Ash, turned to gape at the young girl, before their expressions changed to wide grins and smiles of relief.

“Honestly.” Delia sighed, but the grin tugging on the corners of her lips betrayed her true feelings. Ash slapped her hands together clumsily, uttered unintelligible babble and made grabby hands at the Pokemon. She wasn’t so scared of them anymore now. After all, if they did anything bad to her, her new mama Delia, the honourary Ursaring, would whip them into shape.

As Delia slowly brought Ash over to the Pokemon, who stayed much quieter than they were earlier in order not to upset Ash or Delia, and Red, who grinned proudly at his little girl overcoming her fear of the Pokemon she had been so scared of just minutes ago, Ash thought to herself that, yes, she didn’t like being Ash. But things were different now because, obviously, this Pokemon world wasn’t the world of the original Pokemon protagonist. 

Here, Delia was a mama Ursaring with her own Pokemon team so she would be able to help and guide Ash on her future journey, here her father seemed to be a successful trainer, with some very strong Pokemon, so that meant that he most likely wouldn’t abandon her and her mother to be a failure of a Pokemon trainer and here there was no young boy named Ash Ketchum. Here, was the baby girl, Ashlyn Ketchum. 

It was at that moment, that Ash began to see this new world, not as a prison, but as a second chance. She wouldn’t forget her past life, but she obviously couldn’t go back to it and it seemed that she had a very caring new family here with her. 

It was at that moment, that Ash began to see this new world as a home, and as such, started to plan her future. After all, as Ash, she had a certain role to play. But unlike the other Ash, she would be more than prepared to take on the future challenges in her way. Legendaries and Team Rocket? Bring it on. She was going to prepare herself in order to take the world by storm and, of course, win the various Pokemon leagues that the original couldn’t. 

So, as Ash was surrounded by her new family, and was passed around to see everything new (Her parent’s Pokemon and the scenery), she let out a beaming and gummy smile. Look out future, because Ashlyn Elizabeth Ketchum was going to be prepared enough to rock this entire world. And that was a promise. Believe it.

-)Space(-

Anima: Woo, end of chapter 2. And sorry, but I couldn’t resist using Naruto’s catchphrase due to the reference made earlier in this chapter and a review that Shadowjam17 left.  
So anyway, this story has been posted on both Fanfiction.net and ArchiveOfOurOwn. Just in case you people prefer to read stuff on a different site than what you found it on, though personally I much prefer using Fanfiction.net to upload my stories. It’s much easier for me.

Sooooooo, in the story, you know, when Ash was panicking after meeting Gyarados and said the whole thing about not being born. I’ll be blunt. I have slight depression and self-confidence issues. In this story, in the beginning, Ash will have some confidence issues. She has been reborn as the hero of the story and she doesn’t believe she can do a good job at that role as she is. Before her realization, Ash feels that she took the place of the original and shouldn’t be there. Of course, after her observations, she decides that she is essentially now Ash and takes up his role. 

To explain the role bit, Ash wanted to be an actress before she died. She was also good at creating good stories and coming up with convincing lies when they are needed in a bad situation. So, upon realizing that she is the Ash of this world, she essentially takes upon the role of Ash and will be trying to act like him so as to try and make up for replacing him. 

Of course, she won’t be exactly like Ash as she is still her own person, and she won’t be an immature kid that is obsessed with battling and catching Pokemon, that also never gets older. There is also the fact that she hasn’t watched the anime, so doesn’t really care if she makes any changes to the world, as she wouldn’t even recognize the changes. She is essentially going in blind and her attitude is supposed to reflect that.

So also, this Pokemon world is going to be a mix of all of the Pokemon franchises. The anime, movies, manga, and games, are all going to be incorporated into the story, so keep an eye out for what franchise certain parts of the story are from as you enjoy reading. 

Anyways, thanks for reading guys, and I’ll talk to you all, in the next chapter.


	3. Secrets and surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time moves on and Ash gets a shock.

**Anima: Hey guys, welcome to the 3 rd chapter of ‘Rise from the Ashes’. **

**Thank you all for the favorites, follows and reviews.**

**Before I start the chapter, just to recap, this story is set in an alternate universe. So, there will be quite a few changes. So please don’t leave comments on how I got this or that wrong in the story. The world is going to be based around the original Ash Ketchum and his adventures, but I will be adding my own ideas in and taking some original ideas out. As well as making Ashlyn panic over the differences that she actually knows, it should make the story more interesting because of its original ideas.**

**With that all said, here is the Disclaimer. I do not own Pokemon, but I do own the new and improved Ashlyn Ketchum that stars in this story.  Now, onto the story.**

**Pokemon communicating in English without actually speaking (not Meowth): *…***

**Pokemon speaking: /…/**

**Normal human speaking (Meowth): “…”**

**A person or Pokemon thinking: ‘…’**

 

-)Space(-

 

It had been about a month and a half since Ash had been born, and a few weeks since Ash had accepted being reborn into Pokemon, and over that period of time, quite a lot had happened. For instance, Ash got to see all of the house and her first thought on it being huge wasn’t actually completely correct. The house was big but it seemed bigger because all of the entrances were built with double doors, in order for larger Pokemon to enter the house. (Except Gyarados because he was nearly as big as the house itself)

While it only had two stories above the ground and no attic, the rooms were spacious and the house seemed to have been built specially for larger Pokemon to enter. The only thing that was similar to your average house, was the staircase. If any of the larger Pokemon wanted to go up, they had to be in a Pokeball on the way up.

Anyways, over the next few weeks, as well as seeing all of the rooms inside of the house, Ash started planning for the future. Sure, she had around 10 years to wait for her Pokemon journey, but it was always a good idea to plan ahead. Besides, seeing as her knowledge on the Pokemon world was **very** limited, Ash seriously didn’t have much planning to do.

For Lucario, she could simply try and convince her parents for a vacation to Cameron Castle. Then, once there, she could get them to enter in the competition to be named Aura guardian of the year. Once close enough to the staff, Ash could let out Lucario and, somehow, convince him to visit the tree and Mew so he would know that Sir Aaron didn’t abandon him.

With no Pikachu there for Mew to take, no people would go to the tree, meaning Mew wouldn’t get sick saving them, the tree wouldn’t start dying and, most importantly, Lucario wouldn’t die from using his up his aura to save the tree and Mew. And from going to the tree, Lucario could find out what happened to Sir Aaron. It was, almost, foolproof. (Ash didn’t want to think on what might happen if she couldn’t release Lucario from the staff, or convince him to visit the tree and see Mew).

For Latios, she would have started her Pokemon journey by then, so she could leave some of her team to stay with the legendary siblings in their garden. If that didn’t work, then she would stay in the area so she could intercept Team Rocket before they got too far from it. And if **that** didn’t work, Ash had come up with the idea that, perhaps, if she became skilled enough in using aura by the time she got to Altomare, she could use her aura to purify the Soul Dew. The last option was a bit of a long shot though… okay, it was a lot of a long shot and probably wouldn’t even work. Besides, she didn’t know for sure if she even had aura yet. Even so…

Ash might not know much about the future, but as for what she **did** know? She was perfectly willing to plan for the events accordingly.

Really, the biggest of Ash’s concerns for the future was the vast difference in personalities she and the original Ash had. The original was loud, outgoing, social, fearless, didn’t mind getting dirty and… a bit of an idiot. In contrast, she was quiet, had difficulty talking to people she didn't know, came across as either gruff or very timid and very antisocial, got scared of a lot of things, put on gloves or washed her hands whenever she had to touch something dirty, and while she was no genius, she loved to read and considered herself at least somewhat intelligent.

As well as the aforementioned things, she had different ideals over what to do when catching Pokemon. She didn’t like the whole, attack Pokemon and throw a Pokeball at it when it’s badly injured so you can catch it, deal. It was fine when it was just a video game she played. They were digital, and not real creatures who had feelings and could actually get badly hurt in the battles. Besides, Pokemon in the anime, the parts she actually knew anyways, seemed very intelligent. It wouldn’t be right catching them like people usually did. But obviously, no one else saw that.

She didn’t know much about the journey of the Original Ash (who she had decided to dub Owen due to constantly needing to refer to the previous Ash as the original, became a pain and started to get annoying) but knew many of Owen’s Pokemon had volunteered to go with him, of their own free will. She had decided early on that, that was how she was going to catch Pokemon in this world, ask if they wanted to come along with her on her journey. She just would feel way too bad about attacking Pokemon and sticking them in a ball. You wouldn’t do that to a person, so why a Pokemon? Besides, she wasn’t planning on catching a lot. Only a small team.

Anyway, as well as the different capture method, she would also let her Pokemon stay out of their Pokeballs, as Owen did with his Pikachu. It meant that she and her Pokemon would have the opportunity and time to bond with each other. Besides, they could count the walking as extra training, and if they wanted to go on her shoulders as Pikachu did with Owen, she could learn how to handle a lot of weight so she’d probably find it easier to constantly carry a backpack around with her everywhere… or was it the other way around? Hmmm… anyway, moving on.

If Ash had to save the world like Owen did, she was going to damn well make sure that she had the proper training to do so. That meant she had to be able to: run fast for long periods of time, carry large amounts of weight, be able to hold her breath underwater for a long time and as Owen had Aura, she was going to assume that she did too and somehow, get the proper training needed for that (though it was going to be an utter pain in the ass due to Ash having no clue how to do that. Her best bet was probably going to Rota).

Honestly, having to do so much exercise and training was going to be a real pain in the ass. It was hard enough in her past life to do sports because of her asthma and she had to do way more in this life as Ash? Sigh. Hopefully, in this life, she wouldn’t have any medical conditions that would slow her down.

Of course, seeing as she **was** just a one-month-old baby at the moment, she had a looooooong while to go before she could even **start** training. For now, she had to face the absolute horror that was life while in diapers. She was lucky enough to have completely, not noticed, whenever the nasty stuff happened before the whole Pokemon meet and freak out.

She was breastfed by Delia nearly every time she was hungry. The times she wasn’t, was when her father prepared a bottle so that Delia could have a break from nursing her. Being breastfed wasn’t so bad. While it was odd to latch onto her mother’s teats, and also very disconcerting, she was a baby and she was hungry, so breast milk it was. She still closed her eyes and tried to block out the times whenever it was happening though.

The diaper changes, on the other hand,  were absolutely mortifying. Having her private area exposed and washed by another person, even if she was a baby at the time, always left her crying and feeling completely humiliated. Her new parents always comforted her and made her feel better though, as well as her many honorary aunts and uncles. In case you’re confused, Ash meant her parent’s Pokemon. Ee-yup. The Pokemon were, surprisingly, very good at childcare and babysitting. They even worked out between themselves who would do what job.

Ash had been changed by Venusaur (who was very good at using their vines as substitute arms), bottle fed by Infernape (who, you know, actually had dexterous fingers out of all twelve of the Pokemon so they could **make** the powdered baby milk and then hold the bottle up to her) and washed by Floatzel (who always made bath time really fun).

That wasn’t to say the others didn’t do anything to help look after her. Everytime that Venusaur changed her, Roserade would get rid of any lingering bad smells afterwards with a Sweet Scent, and liked to do little dances that always made Ash smile. Alakazam used Psychic to lift toys and float them around her. The two of them always made a game of it, with Ash repeatedly trying to catch the levitating toys, but nearly always missing as Alakazam floated them out of reach (nearly because Alakazam wasn’t mean enough to constantly deny her any of the toys).

Whenever Ash couldn’t sleep, Lopunny always came, picked her up and held her securely. Took her to a comfortable place they could both sleep (mostly the couch), and let Ash use their ears as warm and fluffy blankets. This alone didn’t put her to sleep though, even if it was super comfy. That would be Butterfree using the move Sleep Powder on her. It was Super Effective and always gave Ash a good day or nights sleep (she slept at random different times throughout the night and day. Don’t judge her, she’s just a baby).

Lastly, but certainly not least, whenever Ash was taken outside the house (only to the garden behind the house so far), Pidgeot did amazing tricks in the air, and showed off his great talent in aerodynamics. Lucario, Toxicroak, Absol, and Gyarados however, put on little performances for Ash as Lucario used his aura to project the telling of the story to Ash.  It was nice that Lucario did this for Ash, even though as a regular baby, she wouldn’t have been able to comprehend what Lucario told her. Luckily, she wasn’t a regular baby and she could happily enjoy the stories and acted out battles.

You’re probably wondering where were Ash’s parents in all of this huh? Well, they both turned out to have very busy and important jobs. At least, that’s what Ash figured. Her mum would have to make lots of phone calls and do a ton of paperwork, **every day** , as well as make short trips out of the house (of course, she always took some of her Pokemon with her whenever she left).

Her dad, on the other hand, seemed to have two jobs. He worked on a lot of paperwork that had something to do with a big organization. Ash knew this because of the fancy initials that she had been able to see when her dad decided to hold her close while doing his work. The symbol was three large letters on a shield as a background. The letters, O.R.A., had to be some kind of abbreviation for something. What that something was, however, Ash hadn’t the slightest clue. Hopefully not a criminal gang like Team Rocket, it would suck if her new dad was a bad guy.

As for the second job? Her dad got a lot of calls and, while Ash had difficulty in trying to hear the conversations, they seemed to be all about meetings. This was proven by how, after the phone calls, Red would leave the house for a long time, with nearly all of his Pokemon. He always left one or two to help take care of Ash though. Case in point was how yesterday, her dad had gotten another call and left the house, leaving only Lopunny to help Delia look after Ash.

Today, Ash was being held in Delia’s arms, as she read a storybook to her from where they were both situated on the couch in the living room. Funny thing was, it was basically the Pokemon version of Cinderella. It was almost the same as the original, but each of the characters now had Pokemon, and Cinderella had a Ducklett that evolved into a Swanna when the ball came.

It was actually pretty interesting to note the differences between this version of the story and the one in her past life. Hey, maybe the Pokemon world had its own version of Disney. As Ash wondered what a Pokefied version of Mickey Mouse would look like, and Delia came close to the end of the story, the doorbell rang.

“That’s odd,” Delia said quietly, as her face shifted to a puzzled frown. She then gently closed the storybook, set it down on the seat beside her and lifted Ash to be held in a secure, two armed hold, as she started walking to the front doors (double doors everywhere, remember?), and whoever happened to be behind it.

As the duo, and the Pokemon behind them (not including Gyarados who tended to stay in the river nearby most of the time), got closer to the doors, Ash noticed that whoever was on the other side of them was making some odd noise. Weirdly enough, it almost sounded like-

The thought was cut off as Delia opened one of the two doors, and all of the occupants of the house flinched back and tried to cover their ears, as previously muffled ear piercing wails entered into the previously quiet and peaceful household.

Owowow, her ears. Why was it so loud? Her ears were hurting here. Who the hell is making all of that damn racket? Even with her chubby hands pressed tightly to her skull, the noise was still loud enough to start causing Ash to get a headache. She tried to level a glare to whoever was at the front doors, but instead, paused and blinked at the odd sight in front of her.

Said sight was a brown haired, middle-aged man, looking disheveled and tired, carrying a small baby, with wisps of brown curls on their head, screaming their lungs out. If this was what Ash sounded like whenever she cried than no wonder her throat always hurt afterwards. Babies screamed worse than banshees.

“Delia,” the man yelled desperately over the baby’s cries. “I need your help.”

“Sam?” Ash’s mother questioned, shocked at the sight in front of her. “What-“

“Please” the stranger pleaded tearfully. “I found him” so the baby was a boy “on my doorstep this morning” wait, people actually left babies on doorsteps? What **the fuck** were they thinking? That, could **not** be good for the kid. “someone left him there last night” At **night?** Jesus. “and I found a note saying that his name is Gary” Wait, what. “he was born yesterday and his parents couldn’t take care of him. I brought him into my lab” What? “but he started crying and disturbing the Pokemon there” **What?** “I tried to get him to stop but he won’t and I don’t know what to do-o-o.” The man broke into heartwrenching sobs over the baby as Ash stared dumbfounded at him.

Delia’s face turned stern and she moved to one side of the door. “Come in Professor. I’ll give you a hand. But you better fully explain everything when this little one, Gary was it, is calmed down.”

The man’s face broke into an expression of utter relief. “Thank you so much Delia. **This** is why you’re my favorite student.” Professor **Motherfucking** Oak, joked as he entered the house. ‘ **WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?’**

 

-)Space(-

 

**Anima: Mwahahahaha, sorry story me, life is about to get so much weirder for you.**

**Anyway, hello again to the lovely people that like this fic, here’s some helpful info that would be handy for you to know so you are less confused.**

**One, Ash didn’t recognize Professor Oak because his hair isn’t gray and he looks younger since he hasn’t had the stress of raising a human baby before, and this is TEN YEARS before Ash’s Pokemon journey starts. So Oak looks a lot younger.**

**Two, Seeing as I calculated Professor Oak’s age to be 39 when Ash and Gary are born, I personally thought that he was way too young to be a grandpa. I mean, seriously. Do people in the Pokemon world support and encourage teenage pregnancy or something? Oak must’ve had his kid young because it’s been mentioned that Gary has an older sister named Daisy. So, since it was a pain to create a backstory for Gary’s parents and the ages didn’t really add up, I made it so that Professor Oak adopts Gary as a SON and he does not have gray hair… yet.**

**Three, I read somewhere that Delia was an assistant of Professor Oak and I decided to put it in Delia’s history in this story. I mean, I LITERALLY, made a timeline for both Ash and her parents so I can keep track of past and future events and their ages. The show isn’t any help in knowing the characters ages since, you know, Ash doesn’t age.**

**Four, I created this story after watching Game theory on youtube, come to the conclusion on what Ash’s actual age is (check out the video it’s super cool and I think it’s pretty helpful) and before looking at the official bulbapedia timeline of the Pokemon anime (which was a big help in knowing when certain events happen). This means that Ash knows some of Game Theories videos and will mention them in the story, while not knowing bulbapedia. Also, this story’s timeline is based on a mix of those two things so you should probably check them out.**

**Five, most of Red’s Pokemon are based on a cool and short comic series on Youtube that I have been watching for the past few years. Ash, therefore, knows the comic series, and while has thought that they are similar to it, has not put together the clues. Which is ironic cause she loved the comics. Also be sure to comment if you know what comic series I am talking about.**

**Six, I am a Ravenclaw. WAIT, hear me out. I am a Ravenclaw, but at times I can be very Slytherin. I can be very cunning and sometimes, even when I don’t mean to be, I can be very manipulative in order to get the best results. Because of this, Ash is very smart and can be at times quite manipulative. However, she is not a bad person. She doesn’t manipulate people into helping her destroy the world (COUGHLysandreCOUGH) but mostly in a way so as to solve a situation. Like, what Ash is planning with Lucario.**

**Ash is essentially going to try and guilt trip/persuade Lucario to go to the tree so he knows that Sir Aaron didn’t betray him. It’s not the best method to use, but it should work and it’s the only idea that Ash has. So, Ash is an intelligent and cunning winged serpent. Alas, because of her methods, Ash will have some depression and self-confidence issues, as well as a deep fear that the people she cares about will leave her if she shows her true self. The bad and good parts of her. I’ll go into more depth on that later.**

**Seven, I have put up a poll on my profile relating to this fic. Be sure to check it out.**

**Eight, the house in this story that the Ketchum family lives in is not the original house. This one was specially built, but that’s a story for another chapter.**

**Anyway, that’s all for now folks. I’ll see you all in the next chapter. Bye.**


	4. Revelations and changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations and changes

**Anima: Hey guys, welcome to the 4 th chapter of ‘Rise from the ashes’. Sorry it took me a while to update but as well as writing the chapter, I had to create a basic outline of what I’m planning to do for future chapters, as well as do some drawing that relates to this story and put it on my DeviantArt. It’s the same name as my Fanfiction username so it should be easy to find. **

**Quick note: I mentioned earlier that I am currently doing my A-levels, so, in the future, I will not be instantly writing and posting a new chapter. Instead, I will post one chapter sometime between one-two weeks after I have posted the last one. I will do my best to update regularly, but here’s a heads up so you don’t think I’ve discontinued the story due to not updating in a while.**

**Also, I am very sorry for the lack of action, but Ash is only a baby right now. When she gets older and can actually talk, she’ll be the center of most of the chapters and said chapters should be more interesting to read. Please hold on until then.**

**Anyway here’s the Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokemon, only the new and improved Ash that stars in this story.**

**Anyway, on to the story.**

**Pokemon communicating in English without actually speaking (not Meowth): *…***

**Pokemon speaking: ‘…’**

**Normal human speaking (Meowth): “…”**

 

-)Space(-

 

So… Ash was in shock… again. **Seriously,** what was with this world and throwing so many fucking curveballs at her? She was only **just** over one month old. Was this going to get worse as she got older? Honestly, she was starting to think it was good she didn’t have much future knowledge. It was obviously going to be useless.

As Ash watched Professor Oak (and it could only be Professor Oak, now that Ash was looking closer she had noticed that he was wearing the iconic lab coat) drink a cup of tea on the couch opposite from the one she was on, and on the other side of the coffee table that took its place in between, she could only wonder, how the hell was this even her life now?

After Oak (repeatedly calling him Professor Oak got annoying) came into the house, Delia handed Ash to Lopunny before gently scooping Gary up from Oak’s outstretched arms. She then started calming Gary down, all while ushering Oak into the house, closing the door behind him, situating him on the couch and making a bottle of milk for Gary and a cup of tea for Oak. Then she finally gave Oak his tea, sat next to Lopunny on the couch (with the rest of the Pokemon hovering) and started feeding Gary the milk from the baby bottle. Seriously, Ash’s mum was a complete BAMF. This? This right here just proved it.

Ash looked over to the, now quiet, baby drinking from the bottle, eyes closed contently as he suckled from within Delia’s arms. **This** was Gary Oak? Ash couldn’t see it. Though that was, honestly, no surprise. He was just a newborn now, and Ash only knew what the ten-year-old Gary looked like. Not to mention, in the future, Gary was supposed to be a jerk. Right now? He was just an innocent baby. Ash snapped out of her pondering when her mother started to talk.

“So Sam,” Delia started quietly as she stared at the hunched up man “how exactly did you find Gary here?”

Oak (Sam?) sighed as he started to run his right hand through his (brown?) hair. “I came outside to get the morning paper, just like any other day” he put his head in his hands “then I nearly stepped on the little guy when I didn’t notice him on my front doorstep.”

“You stepped on him?” Delia asked quietly, and as Ash watched, shadows seemed to gather behind her, as her eyes glinted at the now rapidly paling Pokemon Professor.

Oak rapidly shook his head, and waved his arms, as he did his best to backtrack. “A-a-almost. I didn’t actually step on him. I noticed him just in time when he started crying. There was no stepping.” He let out a sigh of relief, and Ash stared, as the shadows surrounding Delia disappeared and she smiled pleasantly.

“Oh, is that so?” Oak nodded shakily at her. “That’s good. I’d be very upset if something bad happened to this little one.” Ash blinked, stunned, as Delia took the, now empty, bottle from Gary, before starting to tickle his stomach, making him gurgle and giggle. It was at that moment, that Ash realized, that her mother was not someone you wanted to be on the bad side of.

Oak nervously cleared his throat before continuing his story. “A-anyway, after he started crying, I decided to bring him inside to try and calm him down. It was when I started to pick him up that I first noticed the note attached to his blanket.” As he opened his lab coat and started to rifle through the pockets, Delia started to speak.

“You mentioned a note back when you first showed up. What note?” Delia questioned, before blinking at the folded up piece of paper that Oak held out to her.

“This one.” Oak finished with a somber look on his face, as Delia shifted her hold on the currently sleeping Gary so that she could use her, now free, left hand, to pluck the note from Oak’s hand.

Of course, Ash, not wanting to be left out and curious about the contents of the note, started to squirm around from her place on Lopunny’s lap, reaching for the note and letting out a small cry as the two adults attention shifted to her.

Delia gave a resigned but happy sigh, as she passed the note from her left hand to her right and, slowly moving over, so that she didn’t disturb Gary from his impromptu nap, she leaned over and carefully lifted Ash up from Lopunny, who gave out a thankful sigh at Delia’s help, and cradled her in her left arm, before moving back to her previous position, now with two babies in her arms and a note in her right hand.

As Ash got comfy in her new position, Delia skilfully managed to open the note with the hand that held it, after which, she brought it closer so that she, and Ash (but she didn’t know that), could read. To Ash’s immense relief, the note was indeed written in English. Yes, she didn’t have to learn a new language in order to be able to communicate. Anyway, moving on.

“Dear Professor Oak,” Delia began “I’m terribly sorry to ask this of you but please, look after my son. His name is Gary and he was born yesterday on the 31st of June. I won’t go into details, but I am unable to take proper care of him. As I was close to Pallet town, I had an idea that, as the Pokemon Professor, you would most likely have the necessary knowledge to take care of a child. And so, I entrust him into your care. Please take good care of him and love him as your own.”

As Delia finished reading, a stunned silence seemed to descend upon the room. Oak then sighed, leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling with a frown. “After I read it, I didn’t really have time to think about it. Gary was crying so loudly that he was starting to disturb the Pokemon at the lab. I didn’t want something bad to happen, so I brought him to the only person I know that’s raising a young child, here in Pallet Town.”

“Me.” Delia finished quietly.

As a short silence seemed to ring in the room, Delia got a determined glint in her eyes and nodded decisively. “It’s settled then.” She announced, grabbing Oak’s attention. “You’ll adopt Gary and be his new father.” She finished with closed eyes and a smile. Stunned silence… then-

**“WHAT???”**

Complete and utter pandemonium. The previously quiet and still Pokemon were letting out various noises and moving in different ways, Oak was shouting and had stood up from his seat, Ash was yelling in shock (though it sounded more like wailing), and due to the loud noise, Gary had started crying again. Delia, completely calm in the eye of the storm, took a deep breath in and then yelled “QUIET!” at the top of her lungs. This caused all of the various noisemakers to still and before he could start crying again, Delia quickly calmed Gary down.

Breathing in deeply, Delia exhaled and then started to explain her earlier statement. “It makes sense. Whoever wrote the note obviously wanted Gary to be well taken care of. Who better than you? You make a lot of money from all of your work and Gary’s parents **entrusted** him to **you**. Not only that, but they did ask for you to love him as your own.” As Oak spluttered, Ash was wondering what the hell was happening.

She remembered Gary being Oak’s **grandson** , not his own child. And what was with the whole, being left on the doorstep, deal? Ash was pretty sure that this event didn’t happen in the anime. Besides, what about Gary’s parents? The original Gary’s anyway. What happened to them? As Ash pondered over this new development, Oak in the meantime had finally stopped spluttering and was beginning to argue with Ash’s mother.

“Delia” He protested. “I can’t take him in. I’m too busy to raise a child, what with all of the Pokemon at the lab, not to mention I’m working on some new inventions. Besides, I don’t have the slightest clue how to raise a child. If Gary stayed with me, he would probably turn into some sort of work-obsessed hermit!” After Oak finished, he sat back down, with a heavy thump, and a look of self-depreciation on his face.

Delia sighed at his stubbornness and then raised an eyebrow at him. “If I recall correctly, this isn’t your first time raising a child.” She said with a cheeky grin.

Oak leveled a look at her. “You don’t count. You were seven when you came to stay with me.” Whoah, whoah, whoah, hold the phone. Mum **lived** with Professor Oak? When she was **seven**? “You knew how to take care of yourself. Gary is a **baby,** I **can’t** take proper care of him. He didn’t stop crying until I took him to you. If anything, I would probably **keep** bringing him here for you to babysit.” Delia hummed in thought, and then a smile lit up her face. Oak flinched, smiles from Delia always had a catch, just what was she planning?

Clearing her throat, Delia turned to her Pokemon (except Gyarados because he was currently at the river by Oak’s lab) and asked them “Do you guys remember when we all used to live at Sam’s place a few years ago?” The 5 Pokemon gave her a various range of different looks. Venusaur and Absol looked disbelieving that Delia would ask that question, Alakazam looked indignant at the insinuation that he had forgotten, Butterfree looked joyful and Pidgeot gave a deadpanned stare. Lopunny just giggled at the various reactions that the Pokemon belonging to her trainer’s mate gave.

Delia nodded happily at the answers she had gotten, as they answered her question with a resounding yes, and then turned to Professor Oak, who was eyeing her warily. “Sam, do you still have my old room at your lab?” Oak blinked at her, dumbfounded, before puffing up in indignant rage.

“Of course I do.” He answered her. “It didn’t feel right replacing all of your things with my equipment, so I decided to keep it as it was when you moved out most of your stuff, just in case you decided to come over and stay the night.” Oak shrugged nonchalantly before shooting a look at Delia. “Why do you want to know?”

Delia smiled at the answer before getting up from the couch and plopping the two babies in the, now stunned, Professor’s arms. As Delia started to move out of the room, she turned back and told Oak. “Then its settled. I’ll go pack my bags. After I unpack back at your place, we’ll head out to go and get Gary registered as your son. We can then move Ash’s crib over to the labs and then her and Gary can share until they’re older.”

Delia hummed happily, leaving the silent and shellshocked Professor with a similarly shocked Ash and a blearily blinking Gary. Oak then leaped up from the couch to call after Delia. “Delia, this idea is insane. I already told you, I can’t be Gary’s father.” He called out to the retreating woman, who then turned around to give him a cheeky grin and retort.

“Grandfather then.” She joked, before slipping out of view.

Oak yelled after her, positively steaming. “I’M ONLY 39. I’M TOO YOUNG TO BE A GRANDFATHER.” He then panicked and started bouncing Gary in his left arm, when said baby gave a small wail at the noise. Ash, however, blinked at the news. 39? Yowzah he was young. Oak made a very good point there, 39 was way too young to be a grandfather. I mean, in her past life her parents had her in their early forties.

“As I said earlier, you’ll be Gary’s father then.” Delia’s very faint voice echoed back to the now deflating Professor, who collapsed back onto the couch. He gave up. There was no changing Delia’s mind once she had it set on something. He was going to be a father.

Oak let out a heavy sigh. Him? A father? He was hardly father material. When Delia first came to stay with him, he was more of an older brother to her. She already knew how to take care of herself, he just let her stay with him at his home and took her on as his assistant. She and Spencer were brilliant, and a great help in the labs. After Delia first went on her Pokemon journey, it just seemed odd to not be having some help around the labs. Then on a business trip, to talk about some scientific discoveries, he met Spencer.

The young boy wanted to become a Pokemon researcher and asked if he could apprentice under Oak. He agreed. When going back to Pallet Town, Oak went back with a new assistant.

When Delia came back, just over two years after first leaving, Oak was thrilled to have her back, and he was more than happy to meet all of her new Pokemon. She and Spencer also got along great, which was a good thing in his books (he didn’t want to think about what might have happened if they didn’t. Delia was scary when she was angry).

Sure, Oak readily admitted that he wasn’t too happy when the boy she traveled with asked her to be his girlfriend; He was even less happy when Delia agreed and asked him if Red could board with them in the labs. Red offered to pay, but Oak declined, he didn’t need the kid’s money. Besides, Red boarding in the labs meant he could keep a closer eye on him.

So after all of that, everything was the same schedule for the next few years. The four of them (not including their Pokemon) made new discoveries, looked after many different Pokemon together, sent new trainers on their journeys, and much more (Delia, Oak, and Spencer more so than Red). It was great. Of course, Red wasn’t staying idle in the meantime. He had been working on a very big project of his own.

In 1992, Red managed to start his new rescue organization for people and Pokemon. The ‘Origins Rescue Association’ or O.R.A. (pronounced Aura) for short, was an international success. It operated all over the different regions, saving both people and Pokemon. One of the reasons it was most likely a bigger success was that the rescues weren’t always huge things like forest fires. Instead, O.R.A. also saved people and Pokemon from abusive households and/or trainers. The afflicted were always found a safe place to stay, whether it was with a new family or in the wild.

Even though O.R.A. was a rescue organization, it made a lot of money. Whether by being paid for from the governments for the continued good work or from the various donations, which meant that by the time 2 years had passed, a 19-year-old Red had become very wealthy. Which meant that, in 1994, he had more than the necessary amount of funds to commission a house to be built near Oak’s lab. The house and the accompanying buildings were very impressive.

Not long after the buildings were finished Red asked Delia to move in with him and she said yes. She still helped out in the lab so the absence wasn’t really felt until later. Not long after the move, Red then proposed to Delia, who, again, said yes. The wedding was not too long ago in 1997. However, it was at the wedding that things really started to change.

Spencer talked to him, about how he had learned a lot from him and was really thankful for it. But… he wanted to leave, to become a Pokemon researcher, study new discoveries and make his mark. Oak accepted it and after telling Delia, who tried to hit Spencer with a frying pan for telling her at her wedding, he packed his things and left. They all kept in contact with each other and while it was odd not having Spencer around, phone and video calls made the loss barely felt.

Then… Delia asked if it was alright if she stopped working at the labs. She was pregnant and, refusing to lay down and let Red be the only person bringing income in, decided to open a restaurant so that she could still work while not having to do anything too strenuous for the baby. Oak was alright with it, his student and friend was going to be a mother, he couldn’t be angry at her for wanting to look after her family while not risking the baby. So he released Delia from her apprenticeship under him and she opened a restaurant named ‘Pallet House’, that quickly became very popular.

Oak was happy for Delia, he really was… but after she stopped coming around so much as before, he realized how the lab seemed quieter without any of his assistants around, not to mention the much larger amount of work he had to do now he had no one around to help him.

In fact, due to this, he wasn’t even able to come over to see Delia and her new child until now because of how it was around this time of year that the Pokemon tended to have their eggs and, while Oak was happy that there would be new Pokemon around the lab, he was not happy about how much paperwork he had to do regarding new additions. Honestly, he had been absolutely exhausted and sleep deprived when he had opened his door that morning that, even with Gary crying, it was a miracle he had noticed the boy in time.

Oak let out another heavy sigh. Honestly, he could barely take care of himself, how on earth could Delia just expect him to be able to take care of a newborn baby? He was hopeless at managing to look after his own needs, and a newborn’s would be-

Oak was snapped out of his doubtful thoughts by a sharp tug on his shirt. He looked down to lock eyes with the curious gaze of Delia’s child. What was it Delia had called them again? Ash? So the baby was a boy? Or was that a nickname of some sort? Oak smiled softly, the name Ash really brought back some old memories.

Oh, what an adventure he had gotten that day. He was just trying to draw some Pokemon and he was then brought forward into the adventure of a lifetime. He could never forget it, nor could he ever forget the friend he had made that day. Thinking about their friend, it should have been nearly 30 years since he met them, so that meant that it should be around now that they were born.

Really, Oak chuckled, looking at the baby that stared up at him with wide eyes from his arm, it was quite the coincidence that this child had the same name as that gold-hearted girl. Now that he thought about it, Oak squinted, this child had the same dark hair and bright brown eyes of her too. Not to mention the last name, Ketchum. Honestly, what were the odds that there was another child named Ash… Ketchum… that looked so similar.

As the aforementioned baby gave him a curious stare, due to Oak starting to stare blankly at them, Oak was having a heart attack. He couldn’t believe it. It was impossible, I mean, what were the odds? This couldn’t be that girl, it absolutely couldn’t be… but he had to make sure. He had to ask Delia about this little one so he could get some answers. And speak of the devil...

“I’m back.” Delia practically sang as she entered the room, two large suitcases rolling behind her with their handles in her grip, and a big backpack upon her shoulders. “I’ve got everything we need. Diapers, baby powder, baby milk formula, baby bottles for both of the kids and some clothes for me and Ash.” Oak breathed in deeply, the baby’s name **was** Ash, he **had** to ask.

“Delia” He started, thinking over what he was going to say, as Delia, who was talking with the Pokemon, turned over to him.

“Yes, Sam?” She asked with a smile.

“I’m sorry for just bringing it up now, but I don’t believe you told me this” he lifted the arm holding Ash up “little one’s name.” As he brought his arm back down, Delia gasped.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Sam. I completely forgot you two haven’t been introduced.” She lifted her right arm to point at her child. “This is my daughter, Ashlyn Elizabeth Ketchum.” Oak’s heart jumped, so it wasn’t just a coincidence, this was her.

“Thank you Delia” Oak said as he gave her a shaky smile. “I was curious about what her name was.” Delia giggled.

“Yes, I probably should have told you earlier huh? My bad.” She then gestured in the general direction of the front door. “If we want to get everything set up by tonight though, we should probably hurry up and get going.”

Oak’s stomach sunk as he began to feel a little lightheaded. The adoption. Right, right, how could he forget? But… he wasn’t ready to be a father, most likely would never be ready. He couldn’t raise Gary, he was a baby and he couldn’t take care of people and-

Oak was, once again, cut off due to a certain someone yanking on his shirt. He looked down to see Ash pouting at him before smiling as she patted his face and then pushed up the corners of his mouth. Oak couldn’t resist the urge to laugh, even as a baby, she was still just like she was back then.

Turning back to Delia, who smiled fondly at the scene before her, he smiled at her. “Yes, we should.” He agreed as he carefully got up from the couch with the two adorable bundles in his arms. Was he ready to be a father? No, not really. But for his friend, apprentice and the young boy, he would try. Besides, it would be nice to have company around the lab again. With a gigantic grin on his face, Oak said to Delia “Lead the way.” as he gestured to the door. He might not be the best dad but he would try, by Arceus would he try.

 

-)Space(-

 

**Anima: So that’s the chapter. We get to know a bit more about the past, and how it affects the present in the story. And it seems that somehow Oak recognizes Ash. How? You’ll have to wait and see. Also, give a warm round of welcome to GARY OAK, the soon to be, new member of the Oak family.**

**Quick note, I have put a few pictures of the letter to Oak on Deviantart, so go and check them out sometime. As well as that are some attempts to draw the house plan for the Ketchum family. It probably could be better, but I think it went okay.**

**Also, I am so sorry it took so long to update but I was having difficulties writing out the house’s description, so I just decided to post a plan of the Ketchum residence on Deviantart, so much easier to have a clearer picture of something if you can actually see it. Not to mention I’m starting to get into the more difficult part of my A-levels, so I will be spending more time studying.**

**Anyway, thank you for reading and I’ll see you in the next chapter.**


	5. HIATUS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY

I'm sorry to all of the people who read this story but I have to put this story on hiatus.

I am doing my A-levels and don't have the time needed to write this fic.

After I've finished my A-levels or if I actually have spare time to post, then I will get back to posting new chapters. 

But for now, this fanfiction is going to be on (most likely) a year and a half long hiatus.

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience but my studies and schoolwork come first.

Goodbye for now,

Sincerely Anima.


End file.
